Politicians, NASA plan ahead for space exploration future

Two images of Jupiter's ice-covered moon. The left images shows the approximate natural color appearance of Europa. The image on the right is a false-color composite combining violet, green and infrared images to enhance color differences in the icy water encrusting Europa. (Photo courtesy of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE >> Scientists and politicians are eyeing the future of space exploration and possible funds available to make missions to potentially life-sustaining planets and moons a reality.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House Appropriations U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies released a draft proposal budget that allocates $17.7 billion to NASA. The budget includes $1.45 billion for planetary science funding. It’s more than President Barack Obama’s $1.28 billion proposed budget for planetary exploration released in March, which Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, called “insufficient.”

“It puts us back on track to have planetary science proportionately funded among the NASA portfolio,” Schiff said of the new budget. “For years, the (Obama) administration has tried to cut planetary science to the bone, to the detriment of very important work.”

The proposed budget allocates $302 million for the Mars program — $100 million of which is designated to the Mars 2020 rover — and a $100 million for a Europa Clipper mission to study Jupiter’s system, particularly the icy moon Europa.

“The key driver for understanding Europa is its inhabitability,” said Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper pre-project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We want to understand if the chemistry and the properties of its ocean could be a habitable environment.”

The Europa Clipper is a mission concept that has been under study since 2011 by the Planetary Science Decadel Survey. The mission, still needing funding, would fly by Jupiter’s moon 45 times to investigate its frosty surface, as well as perform reconnaissance for a possible future landing spot. It was declined and sent back to the drawing board for being too expensive at $5 billion.

“The fact that we have life near sub-oceans here on Earth, is what we expect to have on Europa,” said Barry Goldstein, pre-project manager for the Europa Clipper mission at JPL.

NASA, meanwhile, is extending its reach outside the depths of its own crew members and is seeking public input in helping decide the science of a future mission to Europa. A Request for Information has been issued by NASA to gauge science and engineering communities for their mission ideas. Anyone can submit their ideas for the mission, but the RFI has strict guidelines for what the proposed mission should contain: The mission should be less than $1 billion and focus on exploring the moon’s oceans and ice for signs of life. The deadline for submissions is May 30.

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“It’s not as if the interest hasn’t been there since Galileo made the discovery (of Europa in 1610),” said Goldstein. “Scientists have been clamoring to get there and put a mission together that’s affordable.”

It’s the first time an RFI like this has been sent to the public, and NASA Headquarter’s Europa program scientist Curt Niebur is “not sure what kind of response we’ll get.”

“We’re hoping to work in a more collaborative matter until we decide which path we want to follow,” Niebur said. “Every mission we fly starts with casual conversation between scientists and engineers rather than at a conference. We’re trying to duplicate that process.”

Regardless what mission is approved, it won’t launch until at least 2022.